Chapter 268: A Far Away Tale. Behind the Stage
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 268: A Far Away Tale. Behind the Stage
What must a lamb feel on its way to the slaughterhouse?
Humans, not being lambs, cannot know. But the laborers of the alchemic steel refinery, who had just barely survived, were likely feeling something quite similar.
The death the refinery presented was like a blade approaching one’s neck in slow motion. Slow, and easy to understand.
A hook would dig into an arm, dragging a person away. The victim would vanish beyond the furnace that spewed crimson heat, and from the other side, a blood-flecked scream would boil up before popping like a bubble and vanishing. Having devoured one human, the alchemic steel furnace, still unsatisfied, would pull its hook back and stuff the next victim into its maw.
It was simple, the clues were abundant, and there was more than enough time to process it all. Without any need for complex intellectual activity, most of the laborers realized they were approaching their deaths.
Even those who had cried out to be killed rather than suffer in the alchemic steel refinery felt an instinctual revulsion toward such a death.
Was it due to a conservative nature, unable to accept a death different from the one they had imagined? Or was it because they had only said the words, not yet truly ready to accept death?
In any case, by revealing its horrific secret, the refinery was fulfilling its role as an institution of punishment to the letter. It wrung both blood and tears from murderers reputed to have neither, made lifelong non-believers clasp their hands in prayer and repentance, and instilled a will to live even in those who had lost it and committed crimes in despair.
It was then, as the laborers were being slowly and calmly massacred…
As if their prayers had reached the heavens, someone shattered the ceiling and leaped down.
Shei aimed her jet-black club at the furnace. Facing the heat that could melt even steel and the crimson, molten iron, Shei protected herself with Qi and swung Jizan down.
Terra Firma Arts, Parting the Red Sea.
The black strike created a red wave. The crimson-hot molten metal split to either side. The heavy liquid metal surged like a tide, trying to fill the gap, but it wasn't a real sea; it couldn't defy Jizan's repulsive force. The molten steel clung to the walls on both sides like a frightened child.
Amidst the searing heat, Shei peeled off her sweat-soaked clothes and examined the floor. Just as the officer had told her, there was a massive magic circle at the bottom of the furnace.
Heat was the power to transform. Extracting heat from molten steel turned it into solid metal. That magic circle was designed to send the extracted heat elsewhere. That heat would then be used to melt alchemic materials.
"Putting the magic circle on the floor... Tsk, damn clever of them."
Shei clicked her tongue at the vicious design.
A magic circle's weakness is the circle itself. While its physical durability is an issue, if its structure is deciphered, it can not only be easily dismantled but also potentially turned against its user.
However, to see the magic circle in the alchemic steel furnace, one had to empty the furnace of its sluggishly churning molten steel.
But if the furnace was emptied, there was no need to decipher the magic circle. The need to dismantle it, let alone the value in turning it against them, would disappear.
It was a truly efficient method, just like the Military State.
"Jizan!"
Still, for the Regressor, Shei, who had conquered everything through dozens of timelines, this was a simple task. She easily shattered the magic circle. The furnace, its escape route for heat now gone, began to tremble. Shei prepared to get out before the molten steel rushed back in.
Just then, Shei spotted a small, hidden magic circle inside the broken one.
It was an ominous and unsettling symbol… a large circle made of ancient runes, breaking the border of a smaller circle and devouring it.
Anathema, Gluttony.
An ancient curse that used humans as material. A symbol of savagery. Something designated as anathema after humans became the masters of all creation. The symbol of Gluttony, the most common and thus the most horrific, was glowing ominously.
It was an anathema an ordinary person would never encounter. But for Shei, who had fought against the threat of annihilation numerous times, she had encountered the Anathema of Gluttony so often she was starting to feel a strange fondness for it.
"...Come to think of it, the Military State had this, but they never once used it."
In every timeline, the Military State had faced many crises. There were times when the Regressor's knowledge and the Resistance's machinations caused the command structure to collapse and a new regime to take over, and times when they waged war, only to be destroyed when a Regressor joined the opposing side.
Each time, the Regressor had provided aid to the Republic led by the Princess, or the New Kingdom that had crowned the Princess as their king.
But at no point had she ever heard a story about them using an annihilation device to consume laborers with Gluttony. She had only ever heard information that such a device existed.
Even that, she had dismissed as a ghost story, in one ear and out the other.
"...Well, it's probably not for a good reason. It was a rational choice, I suppose."
The alchemic steel refinery was the goose that laid the golden eggs. Slitting its belly might produce high-cost alchemic steel like cursed blood-iron for a moment, but in the long run, it would diminish the Military State's ability to wage war. Rationally speaking, there was no reason to kill people to make steel.
That raised a question.
"Then why... why did the Military State create something like an annihilation device?"
The answer didn't come easily. Even after getting out of the furnace, even as she heard the cheers of the surviving laborers, Shei continued to think.
Why on earth did the Military State build an annihilation device they would never use?
"Get lost, you damn animals! Ptui. To think I have to run around personally to save scum like you...!"
General Toruk shoved a laborer aside without mercy as he approached. The laborers scattered left and right, showering him with screams and curses. In an instant, General Toruk was before Shei, speaking to her with a look of extreme displeasure.
"Hey, kid!"
"Who are you calling a kid?!"
"Should I call you an adult, then? Whatever! What do you think you're doing right now?"
Feeling a prick of guilt, Shei hesitated for a moment. She had been smashing up the facility a bit more excessively than the officers knew.
Destroying the alchemic steel refinery would severely cripple the Military State's war-making capabilities. Therefore, General Toruk and Shei had agreed to focus on rescuing the laborers and refrain from destruction. Of course, Shei had not the slightest intention of keeping that promise.
After all, the person most capable of destroying facilities here was Shei, with her Jizan. What could they do if she just claimed she'd put a little too much power into it? If it came to a fight, she'd win anyway.
Shei decided to be a little more brazen.
"I broke the furnace. So what? We agreed on that much, didn't we?"
They won't be able to confirm that I smashed the magic circle, too, Shei calculated as she answered.
"Not that!"
But that wasn't what General Toruk was concerned about. He fumed, pointing a finger deeper inside.
"The presence of people inside the refinery is gradually diminishing. And it's not just here! The same thing is happening throughout the entire refinery! We're saving people who are dying, yet the numbers are decreasing! Are you smuggling them out?"
It was a different matter. Having received the inquiry, Shei briefly reviewed her actions.
Was she smuggling laborers out? No.
Did she intend to? No.
Her review was complete. Shei shook her head breezily.
"I don't know anything about it."
"Then who is it? Who is releasing this societal trash outside!"
Shei had no way of knowing. In the first place, she had entrusted the task of saving every single dying person to Tyrkanzyaka. The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka, who commanded her dark knights as if they were her own limbs, was better suited for rescue operations.
It was ironic that the one person who would be first on the list of history's greatest murderers was the most optimized for saving lives. Perhaps life and death were two sides of the same coin.
Finished with her thoughts, Shei waved her hand dismissively.
"Go tell Tyrkanzyaka."
"...Hmph!"
But General Toruk's expression soured so obviously that even Shei could see it. Shei looked at the hesitating man with curiosity.
"Why? Are you scared of Tyrkanzyaka or something?"
"...Hrmph!"
"Huh? Really?"
Shei asked again, a part of her finding it hard to believe. In response, General Toruk avoided her gaze without giving a clear answer.
There was much General Toruk wanted to say. Back in the days of the kingdom, when shrines were erected everywhere and all bowed to the Sky God, the name Tyrkanzyaka was synonymous with terror.
Knight Killer. A Nation Unto Herself. The Queen of Night and Shadow.
From the distant past to the present, she had dragged her cursed body to destroy the shrines. She killed the priests who cried out the name of God, crushed the holy sites, and cursed their faith, all while bearing her sinful body.
Countless heroes had sacrificed their lives to stop her, but their heroic attempts only added another bloody stroke to the history of the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka. The Progenitor marched with her army of blood, scattering blood and death.
If not for the Blessed Enver Great Plains, a shadowless land that took three days to cross... the Sanctum might have fallen at least once during the Progenitor's countless crusades.
The kingdom had fallen and the Military State was established, but the people who filled it had not changed. The fear of vampires... while not as potent as before, was still firmly etched in their minds.
Moreover, just a short while ago, hadn't they tried to trap the Progenitor in a cage of light? To an old-timer like General Toruk, that act was worthy of being bled out by being hung upside down with holes poked in his veins, and even that wouldn't be enough.
Of course, for Shei, who was born after the Military State's founding and had not learned that kind of fear, it wasn't quite so extreme. Shei asked.
"Don't tell me you're asking me to go ask her for you because you're scared?"
"Ahem!"
"Seriously. At a time like this when every second counts..."
Shei was the type to grant a straightforward request. If there was no particular reason not to, she would just do it. To change a future with no answer, doing something was always better than doing nothing.
In any case, asking for a progress report was necessary. Deciding to put General Toruk in her debt, Shei took a deep breath and called out the name.
"Tyrkanzyaka!"
[You called?]
Darkness answered from the shadows first. Then, she appeared. Emerging from a shadow cast on a wall down the corridor, Tyrkanzyaka slowly approached Shei and General Toruk.
The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka was expressionless. She seemed to feel no particular emotion toward the Military State that had tried to trap her in a cage of light, nor toward General Toruk who had intended to corner them. On the contrary, she had deigned to make a royal appearance to hear their story, still as graceful as ever. Who would see her as a monster mad with bloodlust?
"They say the laborers are disappearing. You know anything about that?"
[Who can say? I am not certain. Perhaps, terrified before a terrible tragedy, they are hiding somewhere, tucked away ever so tightly?]
It was a blatant deflection. Judging by her attitude and tone, she clearly knew something.
But a lie that everyone knows is also an expression of powerful will. Tyrkanzyaka did not permit any rebuttal, and her intention was conveyed sufficiently.
The incensed General Toruk gathered all his strength and...
"...I'll be watching!"
...he said, before turning to leave.
Tyrkanzyaka watched General Toruk flee with his tail between his legs, a faint smile on her lips.
[What a pitiful, pathetic creature. How ridiculous is the back of one torn between fear and saving face. I am pleased.]
"Pleased? Why?"
[Unlike you, those who fear me do not bother me, which is convenient, is it not? I tend to let such people live for a long time.]
"Aha. I see... Huh? Then what about me?"
Tyrkanzyaka smiled gently and continued.
[How could the world be of a single color? Those who do not fear me do not leave me to my solitude, so they are needed as well.]
"Well, thanks, I guess... But why are you helping the laborers escape?"
[Is there a problem?]
"No, none at all. It's actually great. It'll take the Military State ages to clean this up. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just curious."
[That is because...]
He had asked her in secret, but now that things had come to this, it could no longer be hidden. It was better not to forcefully conceal a secret that would be revealed anyway. Just as Tyrkanzyaka opened her mouth to speak, the very face that had requested this of her appeared.